Mercury is gone...

The markets are simply moving to the natural progression of the laws of 3 in capitalist markets. Most markets, over time, progress to 3 competitors and in capitalism that is enough to keep competition healthy.

Warehouse clubs for instance:
Sams, Costco, BJs

We have 3 domestic non-luxury brands. Moving towards 3 domestic luxury brands. Same with imports, dominated by 3 non-luxury brands and 3 luxury brands. Hummer, Mercury, Buick, etc. are all prey to this basic capitalist trend.

Take a look at the jammer market: Escort, Blinder and LI are the vast majority of the sales.

The RD market has, for the most part, 4 players: Cobra, Bel/Escort, Whistler and V1. If the margins weren't so high there would likely only be three. All others in the market are non-players, share-wise.

Keep an eye on Europe. If the Euro reaches parity with the $ then German cars will become a lot more competitive price wise.

Soooo, do you wan't to spend your $$ on a car with some UAW benefits tacked on or do you want to buy a bimmer and pay some Greek dudes welfare :D